Art as an instrument, art as a game between creator and spectator. The scenery is open and the art is for everyone. This is the revelation of OPEN, the International Exhibition of Sculptures and Installations, now reaching its fourteenth exhibition, which will be held from 1st September to 2nd October at Venice Lido and on the San Servolo Island, at the same time as the 68th Venice Film Festival.

Conceived and curated by Paolo De Grandis, co-curated by Carlotta Scarpa organised by Arte Communications in collaboration with the Department of Culture of the Venice City Council, the exhibition is held under the patronage of the Italian Ministry of the Cultural Heritage, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Veneto Region, the Province of Venice and the Embassies of the participating countries.

The fourteenth edition has been awarded the medal of the President of the Republic in recognition of the high cultural value of the event. The great appreciation shown by the highest office of State is the most authoritative acknowledgement received by the organisers.

OPEN is a moving observation point, open to the contemporary scene, on territories that slide and overlap, creating unprecedented images. Set out along the avenues and in open spaces, the art, so cosmopolitan, springing from absolutely different contexts, reveals the need to probe language freely, to pass right across codes, with acts of courage. A feverishly transforming material, it presents unforeseen reactions to the attempt to fix it in rigid coordinates: that’s why it consists of sculptures, installations, happenings, performances, continuously changing.

OPEN creates synergies and collaborations such as those with international curators, presences that return over the years like Gloria Vallese, Nevia Capello and Christos Savvidis.

The Exhibition will present the works of twenty-eight artists from ten countries, including for the first time the participation of Bangladesh, curated by Ebadur Rahman.

The exhibition begins with a tribute to life reborn in the form of the imposing painted bronze orchid The Chromatic Archaeology of Desire by Marc Quinn.

Among the innovations this year, and for the first time on the international scene, will be the participation of the enfant prodige Mahdiyar Arab, the youngest Iranian sculptor who at only 7 years of age has already presented numerous personal and collective exhibitions in his own country.

The reciprocal exchange with Academies of Fine Arts continues, this year presenting the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts on the Island of San Servolo with a project involving several artists, organised by Anni Anttonen. The collaboration with Academies of Fine Arts is an indispensable step for starting to construct a working relationship among all the subjects that promote contemporary art. As well as providing ample reflection on these aspects, OPEN will therefore encourage contacts among participants to reflect the multiple nature of the circuits and the values expressed in young creative art.

The attention towards new recruits to art is also seen in the collaboration with the Premio Arte Laguna, under which the Arte Communications Prize was presented. During the exhibition the second edition of the Premio Speciale Arte Laguna will be assigned to an artist from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, selected by the Arte Laguna jury. This award will offer the winner the possibility to be included among the finalists of the Premio Arte Laguna 2011 and to show his or her work on the circuit organised by the same association.

Journeying territories, real “new frontiers” of the intellect, zones of confrontation in which the public experiences a moment of a wider reality, rooted in multiple circuits that range from the simple act of “making” the work to safeguarding art, to the interpreting process of the various art audiences and to all the emotional, social and cultural density that today are an intrinsic part of the artistic space and of the local and global urban space.

They are focal points for exchange and confrontation, choreographic spaces often left open so that they can be transformed, places where the spectator can ideally negotiate the contents of the works on display, in both physical and intellectual terms, free from any programme.

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